Strawberry Shortcake with Yogurt Cream Frosting

I'm a little behind on my blogging and I have at least 7 or 8 posts in my archive! I'll try to blog more diligently from now on, and hopefully I won't be distracted by other activities such as watching dramas and picking up new hobbies again! The first item to be ticked off from my archive list is a Japanese strawberry shortcake that was made back in March, when strawberries were still in season. I picked this recipe to try out because just like the roll cakes that I blogged about a while back, I've never been able to make a decent sponge cake before. But after my successful roll cake attempts, I plucked up my courage and tried my hand at sponge cake again. I'm glad that my Japanese strawberry shortcake was a success!



I was so happy with the strawberry shortcake that I made the cake again but in the form of cupcakes.


Strawberry Shortcake with Yogurt Cream Frosting Recipe
Recipe from 12カ月の季節の果物をうんと楽しむ タルトとケーキ


Ingredients:

Cake
3 eggs
75g caster sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon milk
85g cake flour, sifted twice
30g butter, melted

Frosting
500g plain yogurt
2 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons strawberry powder
300ml whipping cream

300g strawberries

Method:

To make the cake
1) Lightly grease a 18-cm round cake pan, line with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C.
2) Add the eggs, sugar and honey into a bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and then beat with an electric mixer until the mixture reaches 36-38 degree C.
3) Remove the bowl from heat. Continue to beat at high speed until the batter turns pale and thick, and it leaves a ribbon like trail when the whisk is lifted up.
4) Add milk, beat until well combined.
5) Add flour, gently with a hand whisk until the flour disappears into the batter.
6) Add melted butter, fold until well combined.
7) Pour the batter into the prepared pan, drop the pan on the counter 1-2 times to release air bubbles.
8) Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake turns out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, cool completely.

To make frosting
1) Prepare a large bowl of iced water. Put whipping cream, caster sugar and strawberry powder in a medium bowl and then place it into the large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the mixture until 90% peak forms. Using a spatula, fold the yogurt into the mixture until well combined.

To assemble
1) Reserve 5 or 6 whole strawberries for decorating the cake, cut the rest into thin slices.
2) Slice the cake horizontally into 3 parts.
3) Spread a thin layer of frosting on the first layer. Arrange sliced strawberries on it, spread with another thin layer on top of strawberries. Repeat with second layer of cake.
4) Place the third piece of cake on top. Frost the side and top of the cake.
5) Fit a pastry bag with a star-shaped tip and then fill the bag with frosting. Pipe out star shape frosting on top of the cake. Garnish with reserved strawberries.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I LOVE the idea of using yogurt instead of butter to make frosting! I always feel so unhealthy when I put all that butter in a single bowl. Beautiful cake :-)
Michelle Chin said…
ooh what sort of hobbies did you pick up these days?
Emily said…
This looks lovely! I was wondering, can the yogurt frosting sit at room temperature and hold its shape without melting? Like buttercream?
MyFudo™ said…
It is Strawberry season! I love this beautiful cake...I have just finished cutting out red colored paper and gluing them with green leaf like cut outs on top so my little girl can hang them on her alphabet tree as she tries to master the strokes to form letter /s/. This strawberry cake is a nice way to culminate our letter s homeschool activity. She is a little baker in the making ;) Thanks for sharing.
smaidt89 said…
worst.cake.ever. did you check your recipe? theres no baking powder/soda. i realized something didnt seem right while making it but it turned out awful
daphne said…
looks so lovely-with the yogurt frosting! now that is interesting to me.
eva said…
looks nice, but came out horrible. your recipe is missing some important ingredients!
Piggy said…
Katie - Thanks for dropping by!

Michelle - I take up drawing lessons recently. ;-)

Emily - The frosting does not holds its shapes well, especially during warm weather. It's better to keep the cake (with frosting) in the fridge until it's ready to be served.

MyFudo - It's great that your little girl is interested in baking at such a young age. Give the recipe a try and I hope that you will like it as much as I do.

smaidt89 - sponge cake does not require any baking powder/soda at all. Please make sure that the batter is beaten to ribbon stage.

Daphne - The yogurt frosting is an interesting twist to the recipe indeed!

Eva - Well, I've used the same recipe twice and the cakes turned out great. I've also check the ingredient list as well and nothing is missing. As mentioned to smaidt89 above, the batter needs to be beaten until it reaches ribbon stage.
Eva said…
how long did you beat the batter?

and i'm sorry if my previous comment came across rather harsh :/
Anonymous said…
if i can't get strawberry powder here, can i omit it or substitute with something else?
njmimi said…
Eva - This is a sponge cake recipe. The egg should be beaten until REALLY foamy and really increased in volume. :) I would say about 10min. And it needs to be gentle when "folding" the flour into the egg foam so the foam won't collapse. (It usually holds well if you have achieved ribbon stage.)

Piggy - I have a question. I tried the yogurt frosting but can't achieve peak stage. It's very watery... I have a hand-held egg beater. Maybe it's too weak for this large volume or I need to beat longer? Thanks!
Piggy said…
Eva - Please have a look at this video, it shows how ribbon stage looks like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmLkPBut8nI&list=UUpprBWvibvmOlI8yJOEAAjA&index=29&feature=plpp_video

Anonymous @ 29 May - You can omit the strawberry powder if it's not available and it doesn't really affect the taste. But if you want to give the frosting a pink hue to the frosting, you can add some red food coloring.

njmimi - Thanks for dropping by and I appreciate your explanation to Eva. :-) I'm sorry that I made a mistake in the recipe, and I've posted the correct version. Please let me know if you have more questions.